


A Tarp Over the Dome of Our World

by pajamassquirrell



Category: Original Work
Genre: Down Syndrome, F/M, Lesbians in Space, M/M, Outer Space, PoC, Recreational Drug Use, Space Flight, Space Pirates, Violence ish???, everyone is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 22:47:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 8,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14820368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pajamassquirrell/pseuds/pajamassquirrell
Summary: the longest continous chuck I have of my story. I have no idea how to handle a large cast with so much I want everyone to know about them.A bunch of messed up kids working for the government. We want to create new places to live.





	1. Chapter 1

“Like a tarp over the dome of our world,” he uttered the familiar words in a bout of nostalgic awe.  
The light gently rested upon the blanket of clouds. The sky seemed so close to him, as if he could reach up and touch its surface. His body grew stiff and ridged at a noise tearing through the silence. “Carter, Carter Percival. Do you read?”   
“Yes, Sir.”   
Another voice, belonging to Seda. “Percival, we can’t see anything. Are you connected?”  
Carter pressed the button on the center of his chest. “Can you see now?”   
“Yes—we can.”  
“It’s really dark,” said Rhett. “You’re safe to start moving.”  
Carter had taken only one step when a sickening crunch rang through his eardrums. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just fooling around from the other end of the headset. He looked down. There came a gasp of horror. With confusion he realized it wasn’t his own. The culprit--Alder. Carter’s boot had sunk into the ribcage of a dead… something.  
“That looks like…” Alder then whispered, “A Macropian.” Alder paused. “No… everyone, I’m starting to remember this place. These are the Macropians; the most advanced species that my kind knows of.”   
Now he remembers. The goddamned amnesiac. But he was the best that they had.  
As Alder spoke, Carter pulled his leg out of the Macropian’s torso. Ooze clung to his suit, surface tension keeping it in small strings that snapped when he pulled too far. He couldn’t help but cringe. He was no stranger to corpses and gore; but no dead creature on Earth ever looked like this. This wasn’t deer hunting.   
As Carter progressed, the light of his helmet reflected dully off the vine-strewn metal of a wall. He stood, a wasteland, barren and vast, panned into view. Death stretched as far as he could see.  
“Well,” Carter paused, and said; “It looks like they were destroyed by their own technology.”   
Blood flooded the streets. The corpses of natives were littered around like driftwood in the stream. Several of the bodies were bent and twisted in ways that couldn’t be possible for their anatomy. Nevertheless, grass and vines grew from the cracks in the street. Some called the street plants parasites but this showed their true beauty.   
There was a strange sound from his helmet. Someone was crying. “Percival, how can you say that? This place has clearly been through some massive devastation.”  
“Exactly,” Carter replied. “No force of nature could make this monstrosity.”  
“What makes you so sure it was their own technology?” Alder demanded. His voice quavered with emotion for the memory of this planet’s glory. “It could have been war--or--or” There was what sounded like the squeak of a dog toy. Alder hiccuped again and again. Carter was familiar with this. It was his species’s version of crying. Alder was quite emotional.  
Carter was waste high in Macropian body fluid. It was completely sickening. The thing about the dead is… at some point, they just defecate into whatever they’re wearing. None of these things wore pants. Probably wouldn’t fit over their rabbit legs. They were hardly naked. The creatures were plenty furry. Strange critters they were. A light--not unlike his own--sliced through the dark.  
“Carter, we can’t see anything. What’s going on?” Seda was sniffling now, concern outweighing sorrow.   
Carter was atop a dead body, using the bloated lump of flesh as a raft. His light was off. He laid his face close to the surface of the grotesque stream. He couldn’t feel the soaked skin through the thick gloves of his suit, for that he was thankful. The smell of metallic blood filled his lungs. His breath came and left hard and heavy. He struggled to steady himself. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. There was no way it could be, the astronaut suit was airtight. He was only imagining things.   
Rhett was screaming, “Carter?! What’s going on?”  
“Quiet,” he croaked, exhaling shakily.   
He refrained from looking up. It wasn’t safe, it was safer to lay in a pool of space AIDS than to move at the moment. “I saw something,” he told them.   
“Why are you hiding?!” Alder demanded. “There could be survivors.”   
“Quiet, Alder.”  
After a few deep breaths, he moved. It was fine, he presumed. He lowered his feet into the liquid, carefully sliding down to the bottom. He looked around hardly able to see anything. His eyes hadn’t quite adjusted to the lighting. He dared to put on headlights.  
Regret.  
Before him, light glinted off a polished metal surface. Carter froze. Every movement felt like carrying the weight of the sky. He moved enough to turn off his light only for the AI to shock him blind with its own eye. He was a deer in headlights. It floated inches above the biohazard glaring at him with a triangular cyclops eye. The thing had made up its mind. An arm he hadn’t seen lifted up slowly.   
“Percival! Move!”   
Seda’s words jolted him. He was soaring, now. The rockets on his jetpack splayed space gunk. Carter was amazed, he’d been flying for quite some time and he still hadn’t hit the sky like a fly on a windshield. He chanced a glance back and screamed:  
“What was it you said about survivors, Alder?”   
“Shut--HIC--up and just blast the nicking thing!” he snapped.  
He held his arm straight, and light shot out from the palm of his hand. Pieces of debris flew outwards upon impact. He hovered in place, staring as the flaming shards fell to the city below.   
“That was too easy.”  
“Don’t tempt fate,” said Seda. “Get back to the ship.”  
“W-what?” Carter sputtered.  
Rhett spoke, “Seda’s right. We’re going to need a briefing.”  
“Aye aye, captain.”


	2. We Are Terraformers

“Why would it not be worth it?!” Alder and Carter shouted in unison. The two glanced back at one another in complete confusion.   
Rhett laughed, “Alder and Carter agreeing on something. That’s a first.”  
Everyone was in the kitchen. It seemed crowded despite the elbow room. It was rare that there was ever more than one person in here. It was shocking to have almost the entire crew. The crew together had about the same amount of people as a small high school class. A few members were asleep. Looking around the room Alder and Carter had the most in common physically. The only two with white skin. Both had markings on their faces on their cheekbones. Freckles vs silver tattoos. Casual, cotton clothes. But also entirely different species. But both shared a complete lack of understanding for most things.   
Deshi threw an apple core into the trash bin. “Carter is a hothead. Agree isn’t exactly in his vocabulary.”  
“You got a point there.”   
Together again they shouted, “We need to kill those machines!” The two glanced at one another.   
“Stop that,” said Alder.   
“Rhett, we need to turn off those machines. They’re the reason that planet is so polluted. There’s nobody else to do it.”  
Seda set down her drink. She leaned forward, some of her prematurely gray hair tumbling over her shoulders. She had an intense face, carefully considering her words. “It would be da-... high risk. However, Carter is right. This planet still has life worth protecting and those robots can NOT be helping. If we could get ahold of some of those machines and maybe salvage things from inside the buildings, it could be very useful to Cerenity. Alder did say that they were highly advanced. Besides, what would the Mastermind think when he hears you passed up this opportunity?”  
Everyone was silent. Deshi was the one to speak, shockingly. “I know this isn’t my department, but the streets are literally flooded with disease.” Technically, it wasn’t so far off from his department considering his was chemistry; but he was right in thinking that it wasn’t his place.   
“We can break the blockage so that we can navigate the streets.”  
“Yeah, but that doesn’t change the disease thing. One of us could end up dying if we got exposed to their version of the common flu.”   
“Deshi,” Carter said. “That’s always a risk for us on every new planet. It’s happened several times to me already, and the galaxies still haven’t hit us with anything that our technology and alien sorcery haven’t been able to fix. It’s our job to discover everything about a new planet. We’re terraformers.”  
Deshi slowly and sarcastically clapped. “Nice speech.”  
Rhett sighed. “Yes, we’re terraformers. As terraformers, this planet is of no use to us. It is not suitable for residence. This is not our department. I will contact Cerenity to find a group qualified for scavenging the surface for this planet’s technology.”  
“They will take a moment to arrive. We should make ourselves useful in the meantime.”  
“Yay, let’s all go risk our lives.”  
“We’ll need weaponry,” Seda said. “Demolition, will you work with me?”  
The tall figure nodded curtly. They weren’t one to speak. Carter had only heard them talk once.


	3. We're a Family

Demo--short for Demolition--was a figure of strong stature. Tough. They had no voice. They were seemingly devoid of emotion. And lacking gender identification. They were nonbinary. Their name was simply their expertise. All around, a very mysterious person. Their scars made them hard or seem as such. Demo was hardly one to be expected to ever run or be afraid of anything. But a simple greeting could have them quivering.  
Carter respected them. They, too, were harmed by the creation of the new nation. Percival, in his time, only experienced the beginning of the globalization. He only saw the soon-to-be-global-superpower starting to spread its technology outside its borders. He certainly hadn’t fought on the losing side of a war to fight it. A fight that rendered Demolition voiceless.   
This was the part that most people ignored. The people that fought and ended up distraught by the results. Most complied with Pangea’s rise without a blink of an eye. Those that rebelled paid the price with their life.   
Certainly, Carter found it strange to see someone so able-bodied panicking in a situation devoid of danger. On the wall of the ruined building, they were hyperventilating--whole body shaking. They clung to the edge as though it were their lifeline.   
Carter had shouted. “Demo!” But couldn’t be heard over the sound of their own breathing sucking away at the low air supply they had left. Nothing could shock them from this state. Carter’s yells for them to turn on their jetpack were useless.  
One thing to do and Demo wouldn’t move. He’d make do. He shot through the air and grabbed Demolition by the waist. The two soared to the platform on the top of the building. Carter patted himself on the back. Meanwhile, Demolition was on hands and knees, shaking their head furiously. Carter wanted to scream. How could they just freeze up like that? Their mission--their everything relied on keeping a clear head.   
Carter’s edge softened glancing at Demo’s display. With a deep breath, he asked, “Are you okay?”  
He was surprised. He hadn’t expected a reply.  
“Emotional.”   
One word--the only word he’d ever heard them say. It was enough.   
Carter thought of the dead lining the streets. He thought of war and everything Demolition had seen. They really were tough. A soldier, a veteran on the losing side of a war. This mission wasn’t possible without keeping a clear head. Rhett’s words rang true, “We’re a family now.” Carter couldn’t stay upset. Helping was what family was supposed to do. That’s what he was supposed to do for the rest of the crew.   
Carter stayed by Demo’s side for the remainder of the time. Together they discovered the wonders left behind from this society’s unintentional suicide. They were robbing the Macropian graves. They were archaeologists, he corrected himself. He smiled, he couldn’t help but find humor in the century old joke. Even inside the buildings, everything thrived with life. Organic life, the worst kind of pest. No matter what, it always sprung back. Carbon-based life was a boomerang. The two reported back to the ship with arms full of space trash. Space trash of people that destroyed their own home. People that weren’t so different than his own.


	4. We are Nerds

Carter yawned. It had been eons since he’d stayed up that long. He didn’t want to go to sleep. He couldn’t. His body was filled with that rush; the stimulants fed from the suit still surged through his veins. Sleep wasn’t visiting any time soon. He figured he’d visit Horace. Along the way he crossed paths with a certain porcelain-skinned alien.   
Alder brightened at the sight of Carter. Momentarily, his tattoos hit the light just right and he looked like the legendary statue chipping away to reveal its true glory and precious metal. “Percival! I owe you great thanks. Thank you for taking my side. I’m glad the legacy of the Macropians will be preserved.”  
“It was nothing.”  
“It was something,” he insisted. “I-I have to go. Thank you, again.”  
This encounter left Carter bewildered. He shrugged it off. Heading to the room that wasn’t meant to be on the design of the ship. Horace had repurposed his workplace quite some time ago. His tools didn’t take up that much room. Horace was a mechanical engineer but for the most part he was a repair man. He just fixed his girlfriend’s machines. Seda and Horace had been together for most of their lives. When Carter walked in, he was tinkering, dissecting- something from the planet Carter had dubbed The Pompeii Planet. He sat criss cross with his hair in his face hunched over a table close to the floor.   
Horace looked up at Carter with droopy brown eyes. His smile covered the Pacific Ocean. His whole body was buzzing with excited electricity. It was as if he was the one charged up on stimulants.   
“Carter. You beat the paparazzi! Isn’t this stuff cool?!”   
He sat across from him at the small table. “Yeah. What’s this?” Carter pointed to a blue piece.   
“That’s some kind of battery. I got it from a machine Alder said was their version of clocks.” He paused. “Do you want to play?”   
“You know it.”   
That game console was an important memory to the both of them. It marked the day the two became true friends. A mancave can really bring people together.   
Carter was homesick. With their technology, he could be on Earth in five minutes. That wasn’t the problem. Earth wasn’t his home anymore. It was as alien to him as the planets he was to discover. Everything he’d known was gone. Everyone he knew was dead. Carter’s home was but a memory. Fellow crew member--Horace--couldn’t stand to see him like this. He wanted to help. But he couldn’t very well travel back in time--that wasn’t safe. Horace chose to consult his girlfriend of three years--Seda. She suggested to give him a piece of home. Finding the right thing would take some snooping. His PASMI was sure to have the answers but the only person that could give them access to his journal recordings was Captain Rhett. To their surprise, Rhett agreed after they gave their reasoning.   
“Seda and I developed a new simulator. Would you test it with me?”   
“I don’t know about that, buddy. Last time I used a simulator, I puked.”   
“Please?”  
He clapped his hands and teetered on his feet. “Follow me.”  
It took him a second to notice before he said, “We’re going the wrong way.”  
“No, we’re not.”  
He shrugged and followed as Horace forged ahead. He wouldn’t intervene, it probably was a Down syndrome thing. He was lead to… drum roll please… Horace’s workplace.   
“Your equipment, my good sir.”   
Carter’s eyes were wide as dinner plates. In his hand, he held the most amazing thing.   
“Horace, is this--”  
He nodded.   
Carter threw his freckled arms around him. “Horace! How did you do this? IT--IT’S IMPOSSIBLE.”  
“Seda, she helped too.”  
“You made this? How long did this take? Nevermind. I-I don’t know what to say.”  
“Uh, you could teach me how to play?”   
Like elementary school nerds, the two played Minecraft on the Xbox. Carter was amazed, it was almost the same game used to play the only difference was a few colors. He felt at home. They were at it again. Those were the best days of his life on the ship. The Planet of Pompeii was shortly taken over by another younger group and the journey through space was new. The terraformers never stopped working--never stopped searching.


	5. We are Aliens

“Alder, have you ever seen this planet?” Seda asked.   
He studied the screen. “No.”  
There was a shocked silence. Alder was always familiar with any planet with life. The planet appeared to be nearly half land and half water. The land was all concentrated into one, large supercontinent. It looked like the true Pangea that the new world renamed itself after. The shape of the landmass was similar to an upside down boomerang, but skewed. The color consisted of multiple shades of dirt, mostly tan. Veins of green, forested areas reached lightly towards the center from the outside. The planet was about the same size as their homeworld.   
“It looks like a baby Earth,” said Horace.   
“This planet gives me a weird feeling,” said Claire. “That planet looks way too much like Earth.”  
“Similarities aside. Procedure doesn’t change. Carter, get ready.”  
“Yes, Sir. Rhett, sir.”  
Carter left the scene returning with a buzzcut. Seda found it rather annoying that he felt the need to do that every. Single. Time.   
“Launching astronaut pod in three… two… Now.”  
Carter gazed around him.   
He heard Claire’s voice, “Those trees they look like they’re from Earth.”  
Carter was getting an eerie feeling from this place--everyone was. But he couldn’t help but feel elated. It was almost like he was back home. He crept through the forest carefully. There was a rustling in the trees. He ducked back trying to hide himself. There was a native.   
“Well, I’ll be darned if that ain’t a human,” Rhett said in a fake accent.  
The native looked like someone from Earth--like someone from Carter’s time. She looked like a girl Carter could have gone to school with. She was on the tall side, with long black hair that trailed down her back. The left half of her head was shaved like Carter’s new buzzcut. Another feature drew his eye- she had freckles similar to his own, just a light pattern of a few underneath her eyes. She was muscular; not a bodybuilder, but intimidating all the same. The fact that she was carrying a decent-sized machine gun in her right hand didn’t help.   
She walked on slowly, each step labored, her right hand twitching.   
“Carter, move! Follow her.”  
He obliged. As he went along he began to notice some more things. Her clothes, too, seemed excessively like an Earthling. Her grey t-shirt and cargo pants could have been part of a military uniform.   
Carter’s heart froze; the girl had suddenly stopped walking.   
“I’m sick, fight me later,” she said, with a bit of a Southern American accent.  
Carter was paralyzed when Rhett came blaring through his ear. “Well, that sure sounds like a human, don’t it?”  
“Rhett,” Carter hissed. “What the hell are you doing?”  
Every fiber in his being said Do Not Engage but this was a special case. Don’t interact with the wildlife. They’re usually much more dangerous than they look and she looked very dangerous. Leave wildlife alone unless you intend to eat it. She didn’t look very appetizing plus she was sick... nobody wants poisoned meat. He wished he had camouflage. Carter was starting to feel ridiculous in his space suit. He felt like a boy stalking a squirrel in a robot costume.   
She turned her head, and paused when she caught sight of Carter. She blinked. She turned all the way around to face him. She raised her gun, taking aim at his torso. “... What... the... hell?”  
“Shit…” said Rhett. “You’re fucked.”  
Carter sighed in exasperation. Of all times, why did Rhett have to be developing a personality now? He knew he could take a bullet. His suit wasn’t bullet proof but he could take a few with minimal damage to the suit and an unlikely chance of bodily harm.   
Like an idiot, Carter put his hands up and said, “Please don’t.”  
She swiftly raised the gun towards his helmet, but hesitated to open fire. “Uh.. well. Do you have anything?” She spoke as if what she was doing was completely casual.  
“Um… Not really. I travel lightly.”   
Seda sounded on his helmet, “Good grief, help him.”  
She gestured with her gun, towards his helmet. “I want that.”  
Shit.   
“That is ill advised.” He wasn’t sure who said that; Claire or Seda, but it hardly mattered.   
Deshi was salty. “Percival, by stars… You are a professional. Please, act like it.”  
“No,” said Carter. He totally nailed it.   
“Give it to me.” She pulled back the action on the gun, readying it. “Now.” Her hands were shaking lightly, unconsciously. She didn’t seem afraid.   
This situation could no longer be compared to wildlife. This was dealing with girls. This was not a situation to be taken lightly. But… also was dying. Dying for lack of air was much more humiliating than dying at that hands of some Amazonian-looking chick.   
“I’m gonna do it,” he told the crew.   
“No!” Seda yelped.  
“Technically, chances are he’s safe.”  
“Yeah, but that’s expensive to make.”  
He took in a deep breathe and removed his helmet. Carter tested the air through his nose Earth clone he could breathe. He held it out to her.   
She leaned forward a bit and took the helmet. “Thanks.” She stood there for a second, appearing to already be calm again. “Why did you even have that on?” She said, raising an eyebrow.  
It was at that moment Carter realized--he fucked up. He wasn’t going to be able to contact anyone now. He was a total genius. “I-it’s because I’m an alien.” Yup. Carter was a professional alright. The fact that he hadn’t burst into awkward laughter yet held to that.  
She began to shake. At first it seemed like she was afraid, but that wasn’t the case. “Th-..” She tried to speak for a moment. The muscular girl fell over, barely catching herself. The gun and the helmet clattered to the ground. “I-.. I can’t stand.. st-.. up..” She gripped the ground, trying to stop the shaking. Her grip loosened in a few moments, and she went unconscious.  
With hands fumbling with panic, he grabbed his helmet.   
“Guys? Can you hear me?”  
“We can hear you,” Seda confirmed.  
“What do I do? She fell over, just dropped!”   
While he was shouting, he flipped her over onto her back. He figured that was the right thing to do, plus he’d get a better look at her. CPR? Shake her? AED? He was drowning in anxiety.   
“Are you okay?”   
Nothing.   
Was she breathing? He couldn’t tell. He certainly was breathing. He was breathing sharply with anxiety. He fought to take deeper, calmer breaths. He steadied. He saw her chest rise and fall. He sighed in relief.  
“She’s breathing.”  
“Well, that’s convenient,” Seda commented. “Bring her to the ship.”  
“Yeah, okay.”  
He tried to keep a careful ear as he lifted her over his shoulder. She was heavier than she looked. More muscular, too. While that was great and all, it made her rather uncomfortable to carry.  
“Alder, can you go wake up Ivan?”  
“Yes, ma’am.”  
“This really is some good luck,” Seda wasn’t talking into the voice thing anymore. She had her headset, as did everyone else, but her voice wasn’t directed to him. She spoke too casually. “A native, a sickness we can research without having to contract, an informant--assuming she survives--and she comes in without resistance.”  
Carter frowned.  
“Seda, are you serious?”  
“Of course I am. We’re terraformers. In the name of science, and all that.”  
Carter bit his tongue. Literally and figuratively. His mouth tasted like blood but he had to keep moving.


	6. We are POC

He was relieved to take his suit off; it had been starting to feel like a box. The gel closed in around him. Carter was floating in the middle of a still warm batch of jello. Here, even without air in his lungs, he could think. He just kept drifting. He saw the alien being carried away. The gel began to sting, breaking the dream, before it all fell to nothing. He felt sticky. Warm water fell over him like normal shower.   
When he exited, Deshi was readily waiting. “C’mon.”  
Staring, he stood planted to the floor.   
“It’s time for your post-expedition health evaluation.”  
Deshi couldn’t believe him. The legend--Carter Percival--the one that all cadets that he met aspired to be, this was him.   
“But… That’s Ivan’s job.”  
If only the cadets knew: Percival was a joke.   
“He’s pre-occupied.”  
“Right.”  
Deshi left with Carter following. The med room would be busy. He wondered where he was going but he didn’t say anything. The midnight purple walls meant they were by the sleeping cubes.   
Deshi was engulfed in his deep irritable thoughts. He mumbled under his breath, “Usually, you being this pale would be a sign that you’re extremely ill but you’re from a different time so you’re probably fine. Hey! That alien girl was almost as pale as you.”  
Carter sighed, “Aw ye youngin. Back in my day POC were the weird ones.”  
“What time is that, anyway? The 1980s?”  
“I’m not that old.”  
The conversation was to a close. “Alright, take your shirt off.”  
He obliged and bared his freckled back to him. If those fancadets were right about anything, it was that Carter’s back looked like a star map. The spiderling on his back was engorged from the expedition’s cessation. The spiderling was completely swollen with the stimulants and food and Deshi wasn’t sure what else. It wasn’t his department. But what he did know, was that this technology was simply incredible--even in Earth’s technologically evolved world. He had Seda to thank for that. Seda Shezel was a polar opposite to Carter Percival. Seda was twelve times the expectations. Seda couldn’t take all the credit. The old trio--Alder, Ivan, and Claire--were to thank for the idea but Seda made it so it was no longer theoretical.   
Deshi removed the cartridge carefully.   
“PASMI J-3-M.”  
Percival’s PASMI appeared at his side. Carter’s, unlike Deshi’s, rolled on one wheel. Deshi’s PASMI hovered. Even though Carter had less advanced technology than his own, it showed seniority. It showed that he outranked the rookie. It took the cartridge from Deshi already knowing what to do with it.   
“I need you to bring back a blood cartridge as well.”  
The PASMI beeped in reply. Deshi frowned--his could talk. It whirred away. That sound couldn’t be good on the machine. Suddenly, he was very thankful for the modifications that Seda had made to the design of the newer PASMIs. Really, she didn’t change much only made them more multipurpose and to use energy more efficiently. The overall design remained the same. The same odd, oval shaped body and arms that hid in its sides and the head that could move in a 360.   
As he pulled himself from his thoughts, he began to notice something.   
“Carter?”  
He twisted around to face him.  
“You’re holding a lot of muscle tension,” he said. “Have you been doing your stretches?”   
“Yes,” he replied.  
A single eye on Deshi’s PASMI illuminated orange. He pointed to it.   
“You’re lying.”   
Carter’s face darkened.   
“Percival, you have to be doing those stretches. You’re our astronaut; you need to be in top condition.” He groaned irritably. “Your injury wasn’t even that bad. A dislocated shoulder shouldn’t still be affecting you. Practice some self care.”  
Carter pursed his lips. It wasn’t like him to be so not obnoxious. He nodded slowly. He decided not to question. There was silence. He thanked the stars when J-3-M arrived. The PASMI took over from there and drew his blood. This he was so thankful for. This he knew how to do. His department.


	7. We are Sick

“Alright, you will remain in quarantine while I make sure you haven’t contracted anything.”   
His voice was barely a whisper, “Okay.”  
Perhaps he really was sick. Really, Carter’s greatest talent was getting sick. Thankfully, there would only be one person in the sick bay. Or unfortunately, since Deshi would still have to deal with him and he didn’t get to observe space viruses. But mostly the first one. Carter took this information as if he wasn’t even listening, only waiting for Deshi to stop talking.   
He didn’t even comment on his report he just made, “Where’s Rhett?”  
He sighed. Of course. “Rhett is…” he paused.   
“Where is Rhett? He was acting weird earlier.. does that have something to do with it?”  
“I don’t think you should see him right now.”   
Carter waited impatiently for his reasoning.   
“I don’t think he wants the crew to see him right now. He just had a breakdown..”  
Percival was persistent. “What happened?”  
“I let him take from my drug supply. I microdose. He took half of my stash! I don’t think he took it all at once but he… he had a bad trip.”  
Without another word, Carter took a deep breath and turned around on his heel.


	8. We are oN drugs

Dissolved into the fluid of the galaxy. He quivered and shook. Sweat soaked him like the slime of a frog’s skin. His hair clung to his pounding skull. His clothes were strewn about the room in rumpled clumps. He was one with the ship. Every sound, every click of the mechanics and engine reverberated in his ears. Hands clawed at the skin of his face. Hands everywhere. Strangling his breathing and touching his skin. Some soothed him, he’d be alright.   
Whispers of the crew morphed. He was worthless. He didn’t deserve this. Everything he had, he didn’t deserve any of it. He was nobody—a worthless peasant with the audacity to dress like a prince. Taken in and given the highest position. For what reason? He was nothing. He was a terrible person. Why did Cer believe in him? Given everything he’d never dared to dream. It had to be a lie. What did he see? He left. He got a new family among the talent and the legends. He stood among them as one of them.   
He squeezed his eyes shut; he didn’t want to see anything. He didn’t want to see anything it had to show him. Orange floated in his vision. Like the surface of a star with red octopi swimming in its molten ocean.   
Thud. Thud. Thud. The door flung open. Knocking the wind out him with a punch to the gut. Another presence in the room. He chanced a glance up, seeing only the same flames.   
“Rhett.”  
He blinked. Rhett’s eyes were dilated as large as quarters. He had become a black-eyed child.   
“Go away. You aren’t taking my soul today.”  
“It’s me. Carter.”  
His eyes focused as his frame came into purpose. “Carter?”  
“C’mon. Let’s get you out of here.”  
He nodded slowly. “O-okay.”  
He kneeled next to the captain. His senses lit as his hand grazed his knuckle. Carter’s touch was a flame in the arctic. Rhett shouldered him away.   
“I’m cold,” he whined.   
He pulled away and glanced around the room. “All your clothes are soaked.” A pause, drift in silence. “Where is your cape?”   
“It’s… it’s in Claire’s… plant.”  
The greenhouse.   
“I don’t want to leave you.” The greenhouse was too far--he couldn’t leave Rhett alone for that long. “Could you send your PASMI for it?”  
He nodded. “M4L fetch my cape. Navy blue, gold buttons.” He turned his attention back to Carter. “I went there first for some fresh air. The vines from the Pompeii Planet… they grow so quick. They… they almost ate me.”  
He laughed, “Alright, buddy.”   
Carter tried to hide his frown of concern. What he said was highly unlikely. The vines grow quickly however Rhett would have had to had been completely still for a while for them to do such a thing. Alternatively, it was just because of the drugs in his system. He wasn’t sure he liked either possibility.  
“Rhett, what kind of drugs did Deshi give you?”  
The captain’s face bore shock and guilt. “I-I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t of…”  
“James,” Carter said seriously. He saw the necessity to use his first name; that startled his companion. “I just need to know what I should do for you.”  
He blinked. “I… don’t know.”  
M4L had arrived with Rhett’s cape. Carter grabbed it and draped it over his shoulders like a blanket. In vain, Rhett tried with fumbling fingers to close the buttons.   
“M4L, how do I assist your client?”   
“Help the subject to the sleeping cubes. I’ll take over from there.”  
He clasped his hand over his tacky tattooed bicep. His skin was feverish and he shook as he stood. Rhett had to lean over to walk steadily but Carter made for a good support.   
He slurred, “Thank you, Little Nito.”  
He chuckled under his breath at the pet name. “You’re a mess, James Rhett Denne.”  
The two walked together awkwardly. Like a bartender and a drunk. Rhett mumbled unintelligible nothings as they made their way across the ship. Something of stars and swimming in the sun.   
“The drugs…” Rhett said louder than his previous mutterings--a bit too loudly. “I… I don’t know what they are. Deshi said… he said it was nothing like anything I would have experienced on Earth. He’d know… You know, he used to be a big druggy before Cerenity. You know. He said the closest thing was acid by comparison.”   
Carter nodded. He couldn’t say he knew much about LSD. He didn’t really know what drugs felt like; only how to help when somebody gets a little too high. As the two trudged along, Carter wondered if he would remember anything.   
Rhett’s foot dug into the floor. Carter feared for the worst. Perhaps, Rhett had just dropped. Dead, unconscious, a coma. He calmed at the sound of his voice.  
“Stop.”  
He raised an eyebrow.   
“Do you hear that?”   
He listened, convinced that whatever Rhett heard was just the drugs in his system. Until he did hear it. Muffled voices growing louder and angrier.   
“FUCK YOU! Get your hands off me! I’ll rip apart your lifeless fucking bodies!” the shrill hollers of the girl came loudly. She had some pipes on her to be able to be heard so loud from across the ship. Following the girl’s shouts came panicked chaos.  
“It’s…”  
“The alien.”  
Rhett tried to shoulder Carter away. He released his grip on his waist sending him tumbling over.   
“I have to go over there.”  
Carter’s voice was firm, “No, you don’t.”  
The corner of his lip ticced, scrunching the mole. “I. Am. Your. Captain,” he spat. His words clung together. “Ioutrankhaveauthorityoveryou...”  
“Yes, you’re the captain you have authority over me. You forget, however, I have seniority over you. You are not fit to lead like this.”  
He whined like an elementary schooler tattling. “Something has to be done…”   
Carter helped him to his feet. Still, he was swaying.  
“You’re going to go back to the sleeping cubes and practice a little self-care. I’m going to go check on the situation in the med room. I’m the captain until you get better.”   
The words tasted alien to him. He had never spoken this way to anyone. He was the one constantly being spoken down to. He was the one that needed help after making a dumb decision. He was the stubborn one. Rhett and Carter had traded places. Carter hated it. Rhett was being a brat. Carter was a brat.  
They hadn’t switched places too much because Rhett agreed with him.


	9. We are Fighting

Carter burst into the room midst of the chaos. He was instantly greeted with the sight of the unnamed girl decking Seda in the face. Seda had fallen to the floor and the girl was ready to hit her again. She stopped. She spotted Carter.  
Carter’s feet were planted to the floor. He clenched his fists at the sight of Seda harmed. He didn’t care about his repetitive arguments with Seda. He burned with fury.  
“You,” she spoke, standing up straight. “Where the hell did you bring me?”  
There was an edge in Carter’s voice that the crew knew well. The voice of tantrums. “I told you. I’m an alien. I brought you to a motherfucking spaceship. You’re welcome. Obviously, we’re gonna do a bunch of wacky experiments on you. WE’RE TRYING TO HELP YOU! YOU’RE SICK.”  
The girl turned to face him, not saying a word. She just stared at him for a moment.   
“... Don’t yell at me.” She started to cry.   
This girl, that towered over Carter and could easily break every bone in his body, was crying. He stared. Exchanging confused glances with gold-eyed Ivan and Horace. Horace’s face went from fear to concern. He looked as though he wanted to comfort the girl. Carter prayed he wouldn’t attempt it.   
He jinxed it.   
Horace inched toward her and reached out with a bruised hand. Carter’s eyes locked on his knuckles. Had Horace really hit her? He swelled with pride for his friend.   
“Fuck off,” she snapped at Horace, scowling at him while she sniffled and dried her tears.  
He sank back, standing next to Carter.  
The girl dismissively turned her attention to Seda. She seemed to be completely unaware of the others. “Sorry I hit you.” She paused for a second, her mood swinging. “You’re pretty,” she said, with an idiotic grin on her face.  
Carter inhaled sharply through his nose. He looked back at Horace expecting something--anything any form of reaction but Horace was just staring.  
“I’m Tanny.” She held a shaky hand out to Seda, evidently still sick.  
Seda smiled. It looked strange with her lips stained and leaking with blood. “Thanks for the offer but I must decline.” Tanny let her arm fall down to her side in minuscule disappointment. Seda stood on her own, brushing nonexistent dust off herself.  
“You’re sick and we have yet to identify the cause or if it’s contagious. Now… would you allow us to help you?”   
Tanny nodded, suddenly acting fairly civilized. She had an abysmal little smile on her face. Carter didn’t understand anything.   
“Okay, darling. Could you get inside this tube? We just need to run some scanning. You’ll be put under but only for a short period of time.”   
“Okay!” Tanny walked briskly and blindly towards the tube. The medical tube was a vertical, hollow cylinder with a rectangle of see-through material on the front. Multiple little devices were contained inside, all emblazoned in an overlighting of powerful blue bulbs. It opened when she approached it, emitting a small little mechanical hiss. She stepped inside, and the door to the tube closed with a few clicks. The glass became somewhat opaque due to fog of some sort, and Tanny went under.   
Light medical patches, scanners, and needles were placed on her body. The wires connected to her everywhere. On her spine and biceps, legs, and stomach.   
The fluids were injected through the needles. Blood was taken flowing up the translucent tubes. Carter felt like he shouldn’t be watching this.  
He turned to Ivan, who was now at screens viewing the process of the tube on the girl. “I’m going to go.”  
Ivan’s gold eyes met his. He turned back to the screen. “Okay.” Why had Percival been there in the first place?


	10. We are Conspiring

***  
Horace leaned on Seda’s shoulder. “So what’s wrong with ‘er, Doc?”  
Ivan glared with intense gold eyes. “Hey hey. I’m the doctor not Miss Prodedgy and to answer your question: just about everything.”  
“Mostly to do with her sight,” Seda added in, “ stuff like red-green colorblindness and maybe.. Alice in Wonderland syndrome?” She paused, remarking at the syndromes name and it’s apparent rarity.  
“What’s Alice in Wonderland syndrome?” Horace asked.  
“Basically, from what I could gather with what little data we have on it, it makes some things appear bigger or smaller than they actually are. It could potentially mess with what she pays attention to and things like that,” Seda said, answering Horace. “Speaking of her psychological issues she also has periodic fits of rage, and a tendency to have rapidly changing emotions.”  
“And her tremors?” Carter asked.   
Ivan responded now. “She’s got something called Kuru from uh.. eating somebody’s brain.”  
“Kuru. Shaking death,” Carter translated. All eyes were on him now. “A dog in To Kill a Mockingbird had it. They called him ‘mad’.”   
There was a pause.   
“It was old even in my day,” he muttered.  
Claire sighed and lounged back stretching her legs across Ivan, Carter, and Alder. The whole golden trio with Carter as the interloper. Alder was radianting gold. He looked like a trophy. All of him was solid gold. Every single one of their group was gold like stolen doubloons. Ivan flashed gold eyes and Claire was adorned with gold piercings. Alder was obnoxiously gold as if the flecks of gold on Ivan and Claire came off his own body. Whenever all three were together, Alder’s soft silver became gaudy gold. The gleskovian was a small wonder to him. She spoke silently, her voice a thousand times softer than her loud pirate-ish appearance, “So, we’re going to ignore that she’s human?” She looked at her nails. “Just wondering.”  
Silence fell over the group. The question landed upon Seda with a strong and heavy gaze.   
“Well, it’s not that simple. She’s not human, actually.”  
Claire raised an eyebrow and her and Ivan shared a knowing glance of a very connected couple. “Oh, really?” Ivan asked. “Tests have been run all throughout that department--my department. Deshi, Claire, and I all have come to the same consensus. Alder doesn’t know anything. You do.”  
Seda sighed. “In the year 2056, America sent a ship into space, and landed on the planet Insikyoria-1b.”  
“A new colony,” Deshi continued. “It was the south. All white participants. They created a new offspring of humans. It was an attempt to make a stronger subspecies of human. But that’s just a conspiracy theory? Not real.”  
“How do you know this?” Seda asked.  
“Internet. I used to spend way too much time online. I still do.”  
“Well then… Yes, Deshi is correct but their plan didn’t work out how they hoped,” said Seda. “The offspring, which has been designated as ‘Neo-Americans’, are prone to color blindness, insanity, random disfigurements, high levels of aggression, and multiple other issues with sight.”  
Claire sighed, “All right. Okay, now that that’s cleared up. Kuru has a 10-50 year incubation period. We have not seen a case since 2008. Up to this point, it has never been cured. It has been a death-sentence disease.” She looked around the room stopping briefly on Carter. “With our scanners we know that she’s twenty-two years old she would have been eleven or younger to have contracted this disease. She could have eaten a brain at like eleven. This could lead to believe that this society has cannibalistic tendencies.”   
“That’s disgusting!”  
“Deshi!” snipped Claire in warning.  
He threw his arms up. “Well, it is! Not even the merpeople of Planet Ocean were that primitive.” He crossed his arms slouching in his chair.   
Alder took a deep breath and spoke, “Deshi, you cannot simply call anyone barbaric because you feel like it. We have much to learn from this planet.”   
` “What could we possibly learn from them? The logic of blatant racism?” His voice was filled with suppressed spite.  
“Yes,” said Seda. “This planet was populated by racist Southern Americans but Tanny has shown no reaction to the fact that we’re POC she treated us the same as Percival. If she was racist, she would lean toward the only other white passenger. But she has already admitted to being attracted to one.” She gestured at herself. Percival was growing irritable. “Racism is a learned concept and without any POC on this planet it has died out over time. And might I remind you, most of them are some form of blind.”  
Deshi pursed his lips. “Yeah… but why are you all taking their side they go against everything our Homeworld fought to eliminate. Discrimination in all forms has destroyed our homeworld in the years before Pangea formed.”   
“Pangea isn’t all good.”  
Deshi rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah, while you can go on and on missing the world you can’t go home to, the rest of us are going to live in the now.”  
Carter’s face flushed red over his freckles. He felt foolish being ruffled by passive aggression but that only fueled his flames. “We aren’t on our Homeworld! Why don’t you start living where you are?”  
“Boys!” Alder intervened. “Stop this! You. Are. Professionals. Just because Rhett isn’t around, that doesn’t mean you can decapitate each other!”  
Carter pushed Claire’s legs off of him and turned sharply towards the door.   
“Hey! Where are you going?”  
“To the training room.”  
“Work on your stretches while you’re there,” said Deshi softly, almost apologetically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CARSHI 
> 
> SEDANNY


	11. WE ARE FRUSTRATED

Sweat drenched his skin. His hair clung to his forehead, skull, and shoulders. Breaths came heavy with this intense focus. Right foot, left foot. He was lost in the motions fighting the training dummies like it was his worst enemy. He usually didn’t use the combat droids. But someone did. He, personally, preferred a nice game of ball. Tanny, no longer sickly, fought seperately on the other side of the room. She was getting good. A little too good. She wasn’t really using very professional techniques, but she was very near damaging the poor combat droids. But she held back--practiced some restraint. It wasn’t like this before. Before, she picked up one of the combat droids and slammed it into the ground. It wasn’t very effective, but it was entertaining. And she was sick at the time. Somehow she didn’t notice her own illness.  
With one clean sweep, he knocked the droid off its feet. He went to grab a towel and wiped his sweaty face.  
Without losing focus on the combat droids Tanny called, “Carter! Callin’ it quits so soon?”  
For once, he held his tongue. He walked out of the training room without another glance back at the girl.


	12. We are Lonely

He pulled his head back out of the sink. Carter flipped his hair back and heard a splat on his back. The water slipped down his spine and mingled with the sweat soaking his shirt. He squinted at his reflection. Percival sighed. His hair was getting so chaotic. It was becoming completely impractical. He haphazardly wiped his hair and face. His hair still dripping slightly and shirt still soaked, he left the room.   
Passing Deshi’s office, he heard Deshi shout: “You look like a wet dog.”  
He walked past Rhett and Alder sitting closely together on the love seat. The two were laughing and giggling at their inaudible whispers to one another. They were too delved into one another to even look up as he passed. Carter kept walking. Soon, he stood in the room feeling so empty. He was frozen standing in the middle of a thousand memories. He shook his head. Carter couldn’t stand to be with all this. He refused to stand in the midst of remains of his friend. He wasn’t dead but he might as well have been.   
He had rested here sourfully for so long after Horace was long gone. It was a small wonder how Rhett was able to find him with such ease. A hand of reassurance lay on his shoulder.   
“Carter,” said Rhett. “I know you’re upset but you cannot take your anger out on Seda.”  
“But she--”  
“Horace is a grown man. It was his decision to leave. You don’t have to understand it, just respect it.”  
That wasn’t the last time that Rhett was his comfort through losing his first and best friend. He had chased him down while the captain wandered making his rounds. He had begged for news on Horace. He was doing just fine. Could he use the video call to contact him? He didn’t have the time.  
Rhett even played minecraft with him when he was particularly upset. The two had grown very familiar with one another. Carter knew of how he came to work under Cerenity which he hadn’t told anybody else. He knew his full name. Carter knew that he was an Australian man. Australia being the one paradise without Pangean technology. He knew how his family shunned him when he speeched his wishes to go to the mainland. He went anyway. But all that was stolen away when he was stolen away by the amnesiac alien. Alder had him wrapped around his finger.   
Now that Horace and Seda were no more, Seda had gained a couple more. She had the bright, young Tanny under arm. Demolition as well who was really coming out of their shell. Nicodemus Isaac Caesar a Romanian war officer. Otherwise known as Nic. Demolition had revealed their name. Seda said she had them working on a new type of therapy in the development. Carter supposed he was happy for them. Nic talked now and seemed more at peace with themself. But he also felt pity for himself. Nobody had time for him, it felt.  
He went to see Claire. Carter and Claire didn’t really communicate. Rather she tolerated his presence as he watched her work. They weren’t close but he found her presence pleasant.   
“Your hair is getting long,” she said. “What’s up with that anyhow?”  
He blinked in confusion. “I buzz it before we go on a new planet. It’s really to keep track of how much time has passed. It used to drive me mad how there is no perception of time here so this was my solution.” He was glad to be talking of something personal so casually.  
“So I guess it’s been a while since we’ve been on a new planet. Does it make you upset?”   
“Yes.”  
“I understand. I’ve been where you’re at. It can be hard if you don’t feel like you’re being useful.”  
He nodded.   
She continued her work. Claire, like her partner, was trans. Ivan the mad, magical genius had engineered himself a whole new body to live in. Perhaps, more than once. Claire chose to remain the same. It suited her well. She was muscular but less so than when Carter first met her. Everyone in the future was bigger and blacker. Claire was the biggest and the blackest. She towered at a height of six feet and seven inches. While Ivan, the pint-sized pixie, rested at five foot flat. Talk of a height difference. Claire had skin darker than midnight. She was bejewelled with gold piercings that he believed to be enchanted. It was hard to believe that she was once a pirate roaming through space when she cursed under her breath in spanish at a flower. Or when she pointed out that Rhett’s nickname for Carter “Little Nito” literally meant “little little”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if this is cannon


	13. we are thankful

To put it simply, Carter was bored. His head was swimming with thoughts and had no idea of what to do. He thought of the time that he came from and how so much has changed. He considered and pondered.   
“J3M,” he said. “Please, give me my notepad.”  
The notepad wasn’t even paper but at least holding a pen felt familiar. He wrote it out. He wrote of the world that his fellow terraformers would never understand.   
The year was 2008 and the plague struck in the United States. One of the first infections came to a mother bearing her twelfth child. Even back then, such a thing was unpresidented. It had been a long time since families so large were commonplace even rarer that it would be that each sibling would not differ in one parent. The Percival’s were all full blood related. It was dangerous to give birth. From Carter’s understanding, more than three children were now considered a large family. Many chose not to have children as well.   
So much had changed.  
His mother had gotten the plague shortly after giving birth to Carter. She died. Carter’s father uprouted the entire family for a job promotion placing them in Eastern Europe. They must have carried the plague with them. Like most of his peers, he grew up in poverty but not for lack of money. His father chose education over comfort. Carter and his brothers and three sisters were sent to the finest schools. For most it suited them well, but Carter always had his mind in the time not so far before when he was born and his gaze always rested out the window. He was a explorer not a student. He had tried for many years to take the path of his siblings. The world was changing. Salaries were dropping. Carter tried his hardest but he was in college, age 22, living with his father in a small apartment when the plague caught him.   
He was frozen in time. He woke up to find a world beyond everything he knew. Everything was different. People wanted to make a change and the wanted his assistance. Cerenity cured Carter and put him back into the world.   
Cerenity was a savior.   
Had it not been for Cerenity…   
Deshi would have lived on the streets growing up. Rhett would have starved


End file.
